Wearable World Congress 2015 Highlights

Wearable World Congress (formerly GlazedCon) took place this week in San Francisco at the historic Palace of Fine Arts, where the World’s Fair was held 100 years ago. Over 600 entrepreneurs and the top IoT and wearable startups attended the two day conference, along with hundreds of attendees eager to see speakers who have found success with their wearables, and make connections with the major players in the exploding industry.

Not only was the main stage filled with enthusiastic presenters, but organizers were excited to make a big announcement as well on Tuesday afternoon. ReadWrite, the tech blog Wearable World acquired earlier this year, will go to a crowdfunding model in partnership with Indiegogo to make sure it maintains its journalistic integrity.

One of Tuesday’s highlights include an interview with the editor-in-chief of VentureBeat, Dylan Tweney, and Marcus Weller, the CEO and co-founder of Skully, the maker of a “smart” motorcycle helmut. This smart technology includes integration with your smartphone’s GPS and music capabilities, and a variety of safety features including a transparent heads-up display that shows both the rear-view camera imagery and notifications of important traffic alerts. The company’s main goal is to “reduce cognitive load” making it easier for your brain to process information.

Another highlight was a presentation by Aarthi Ramamurthy, CEO and founder of Lumoid, a perfect solution for those who are interested in a wearable but would prefer to test it out first. With this service, customers can receive as many as five wearables per week, giving users options to test them and “reduce device abandonment,” according to Ramamurthy.

Several other panels discussed wearable technology in the health industry, and outlined devices that are being created to help and empower both patients and doctors, and ultimately reshape modern medicine. A panel called “Doctor! Doctor! The Rx for Connected Devices” included the CEOs and co-founders from a few successful wearable health companies, such as Sam de Brouwer from Scanadu. Their mission is to make this the last generation to know so little about our health, using a combination of smart phones, sensors, machine learning, and design to help people understand their health.

Wearable technology is virtually changing the course of our lives, from health and wellness, to safety and simply an overall awareness of behaviors leading to insights on how we can improve ourselves holistically. The Palace of Fine Arts served as a hub of innovation in 1915 at the World’s Fair; 100 years later, Wearable World Congress sparked a new sense of excitement for the hundreds of attendees in an ever-changing technology realm: wearables.

Meg Rahner
Writer
Meg is the PR Coordinator for CircleClick and a writer for MobileFOMO. She is from Erie, Pennsylvania and has a BA in Public Relations from Penn State University. She moved to San Francisco shortly after graduating in 2010 and loves life on the west coast. Since moving to SF, she has contracted for the Academy of Art University's Marketing team, LinkedIn's Recruiting Team, and is excited to be pursuing her passion for writing and PR in her current roles.
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